Q uinn S lobodian . Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism .

Abstract

Quinn Slobodian begins his stimulating new book, Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism, with a claim that will not surprise scholars of the subject but that bears repeating for a nonspecialist audience. Although neoliberalism is often taken as a synonym for laissez-faire, Slobodian writes, “the foundational neoliberal insight is comparable to that of John Maynard Keynes and Karl Polanyi: the market does not and cannot take care of itself” (2). Neoliberalism is “a form or variety of regulation rather than its radical Other” (3). From there, Slobodian offers a nuanced analysis of a “neglected” strain of neoliberalism, the Geneva School. Essentially an intellectual history of the arc from the Habsburg Empire to the World Trade...